Past climate and environmental impacts on Great Barrier Reef paleoecology. This project aims to investigate the interconnected processes that led to past reef growth and demise. The iconic Great Barrier Reef and reefs globally are under threat. Yet reefs appear to have undergone cycles of death and recovery, though the causes are poorly understood. This project will reconstruct past climate, rainfall, water quality, coral bleaching and reef ecology feedbacks across Great Barrier Reef death event ....Past climate and environmental impacts on Great Barrier Reef paleoecology. This project aims to investigate the interconnected processes that led to past reef growth and demise. The iconic Great Barrier Reef and reefs globally are under threat. Yet reefs appear to have undergone cycles of death and recovery, though the causes are poorly understood. This project will reconstruct past climate, rainfall, water quality, coral bleaching and reef ecology feedbacks across Great Barrier Reef death events to establish which environmental stressors and paleoclimate variations are most critical for reef health. The outcomes will better constrain long term coral reef dynamics and provide significant benefits to those who manage reefs globally, since the Great Barrier Reef covers the full range of reef environments.Read moreRead less
New insights into abrupt climate change using isotope model-data fusion. There have been several episodes in the past 60,000 years during which carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere causing significant and rapid warming. This project aims to determine the source of the carbon responsible for these warming events. This project is significant because it will increase our understanding of the processes underlying abrupt past, and potential future changes. These processes are currently und ....New insights into abrupt climate change using isotope model-data fusion. There have been several episodes in the past 60,000 years during which carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere causing significant and rapid warming. This project aims to determine the source of the carbon responsible for these warming events. This project is significant because it will increase our understanding of the processes underlying abrupt past, and potential future changes. These processes are currently underestimated or missing in climate models. The expected outcomes include a better understanding of the non-linear responses in the climate system. This should provide significant benefits, such as an assessment of whether the smooth climate changes currently projected through to year 2100 are misleading.Read moreRead less
Millennial climate change in southern Australia during the Last Glacial. Abrupt warming and cooling events were a persistent feature of Earth's most recent climate cycle. Surprisingly, little is known of how these events affected the climate of Australia. This project will produce precisely dated reconstructions of rainfall and temperature trends in southern Australia during these events. These new terrestrial and ocean data will be compared with model simulations to determine how rapidly abrupt ....Millennial climate change in southern Australia during the Last Glacial. Abrupt warming and cooling events were a persistent feature of Earth's most recent climate cycle. Surprisingly, little is known of how these events affected the climate of Australia. This project will produce precisely dated reconstructions of rainfall and temperature trends in southern Australia during these events. These new terrestrial and ocean data will be compared with model simulations to determine how rapidly abrupt climate perturbations in the Northern Hemisphere reached our region, and the processes by which this occurred. The results will advance theory on how abrupt climate change propagates globally and provide a long-awaited climatic context for capstone events in Australia's natural history.Read moreRead less
New insights on the forcing of Quaternary ice-age terminations. This project investigates the period when Earth's climate last experienced a major step change. Using novel techniques, it combines information from an exceptional archive of cave deposits and ocean sediments to precisely determine the timing of ice-age cycles. The results will provide the first robust test of hypotheses proposed to explain these cycles, leading to refinements in the astronomical theory of the ice ages. They will al ....New insights on the forcing of Quaternary ice-age terminations. This project investigates the period when Earth's climate last experienced a major step change. Using novel techniques, it combines information from an exceptional archive of cave deposits and ocean sediments to precisely determine the timing of ice-age cycles. The results will provide the first robust test of hypotheses proposed to explain these cycles, leading to refinements in the astronomical theory of the ice ages. They will also provide an essential reference record of Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet history, which will complement data from forthcoming Antarctic ice cores. Together, this will better contextualise current and projected greenhouse warming.Read moreRead less
A Holocene history of rainfall extremes for the South Pacific . The project aims to generate the longest ever record of rainfall extremes in the Southern Hemisphere (11,700 years) that will be used to update probabilistic recurrence intervals and inform future risks in a warming world. We will apply a palaeoclimate approach to the science of extreme events by using proxy data from stalagmites to investigate natural rainfall variability during the Holocene. Combined with state of the art Global C ....A Holocene history of rainfall extremes for the South Pacific . The project aims to generate the longest ever record of rainfall extremes in the Southern Hemisphere (11,700 years) that will be used to update probabilistic recurrence intervals and inform future risks in a warming world. We will apply a palaeoclimate approach to the science of extreme events by using proxy data from stalagmites to investigate natural rainfall variability during the Holocene. Combined with state of the art Global Climate Model simulations for three major climate events of the Holocene, we will identify mechanisms of long term shifts in heavy rainfall events. The project will provide significant benefits for Australia and the Pacific islands in terms of prediction and preparedness for deluges like we experienced in 2022.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100279
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$453,000.00
Summary
Did ocean circulation changes build the Antarctic ice sheet? The evolution of the Antarctic ice sheet, from its beginning 34 million years ago (Ma) until today, is critical to our understanding of future climate change. This project aims to improve climate and ocean model simulations of the early Oligocene (30 Ma) and middle Miocene (15 Ma), using higher resolution and more accurate paleogeography than has previously been done. Expected outcomes include improvements to paleoclimate reconstructio ....Did ocean circulation changes build the Antarctic ice sheet? The evolution of the Antarctic ice sheet, from its beginning 34 million years ago (Ma) until today, is critical to our understanding of future climate change. This project aims to improve climate and ocean model simulations of the early Oligocene (30 Ma) and middle Miocene (15 Ma), using higher resolution and more accurate paleogeography than has previously been done. Expected outcomes include improvements to paleoclimate reconstructions, better constraints on future climate change, and a better understanding of the impact of ocean eddies on Antarctic climate. These outcomes should strengthen Australia’s long-term program of climate modelling, and enable more effective climate adaptation, mitigation and risk management.Read moreRead less
Investigating the controls on the extent of tidewater glaciers. This project aims to improve our ability to model tidewater glaciers. The project will conduct studies of two iconic glacial systems in Alaska: Glacier Bay and Columbia Glacier. These glaciers have recently experienced rapid retreat and contributed to sea level rise. In particular, the Grand Pacific Glacier has retreated 100 kilometres up Glacier Bay, the greatest recorded glacier retreat in the last 200 years. The project will use ....Investigating the controls on the extent of tidewater glaciers. This project aims to improve our ability to model tidewater glaciers. The project will conduct studies of two iconic glacial systems in Alaska: Glacier Bay and Columbia Glacier. These glaciers have recently experienced rapid retreat and contributed to sea level rise. In particular, the Grand Pacific Glacier has retreated 100 kilometres up Glacier Bay, the greatest recorded glacier retreat in the last 200 years. The project will use geomorphic mapping, dating and climate reanalysis to better understand the long term behaviour of these glaciers and the drivers of recent retreat. An expected outcome from the project is a better understanding of the long term behaviour of tidewater glaciers and an improvement in our ability to predict sea level rise from them.Read moreRead less
Understanding total long-term sea-level consequences. This project addresses the urgency in long-term infrastructure planning to understand the long-term "equilibrium" sea-level-change consequences from today’s exceptionally rapid climate change. Understanding this requires detailed sea-level reconstructions back to warm periods with similar CO2 levels to today (~3.5 million years ago), but these remain insufficiently defined. To advance, the project will deliver a next-generation, multi-million ....Understanding total long-term sea-level consequences. This project addresses the urgency in long-term infrastructure planning to understand the long-term "equilibrium" sea-level-change consequences from today’s exceptionally rapid climate change. Understanding this requires detailed sea-level reconstructions back to warm periods with similar CO2 levels to today (~3.5 million years ago), but these remain insufficiently defined. To advance, the project will deliver a next-generation, multi-million-year sea-level reconstruction that includes dynamically evolving (time-dependent) interactions between critical climate factors. This will then be applied with other palaeoclimate data to reconstruct equilibrium relationships between sea level, temperature, and CO2 at currently unattainable precision. Read moreRead less
Past trends and future risk of climate extremes in southern Australia. Prolonged droughts and periods of heightened flood and fire risk present a major challenge for Australia’s society and economy. This proposal aims to better resolve the causes and risks of decadal climate extremes through a suite of high quality records of temperature, rainfall/evaporation and humidity in southern Australia over 2000 years. Novel geochemical analyses will be developed and applied to lake sediments – method de ....Past trends and future risk of climate extremes in southern Australia. Prolonged droughts and periods of heightened flood and fire risk present a major challenge for Australia’s society and economy. This proposal aims to better resolve the causes and risks of decadal climate extremes through a suite of high quality records of temperature, rainfall/evaporation and humidity in southern Australia over 2000 years. Novel geochemical analyses will be developed and applied to lake sediments – method development which is likely to benefit climate, minerals and biosecurity research. New knowledge of mechanisms underlying climate variability is expected to benefit fundamental research, while future-facing models will allow land managers and policy makers to better anticipate extraordinary climate events.Read moreRead less
Fire and rain: Drivers of deep-time ecosystem assembly in Australia. This project aims to investigate the influence of bushfires and shifting rainfall patterns on the development of Australia’s dominant ecosystems. By combining a range of novel geochemical, isotopic and palaeontological techniques, this research seeks to reveal the causes and consequences of Australia’s transformation from a forested to mainly open landscape of grassland, shrubland and savannah. The expected outcome is detailed ....Fire and rain: Drivers of deep-time ecosystem assembly in Australia. This project aims to investigate the influence of bushfires and shifting rainfall patterns on the development of Australia’s dominant ecosystems. By combining a range of novel geochemical, isotopic and palaeontological techniques, this research seeks to reveal the causes and consequences of Australia’s transformation from a forested to mainly open landscape of grassland, shrubland and savannah. The expected outcome is detailed knowledge of how changes in fire and rain shaped the ecology and evolution of plants and animals. This knowledge is key to understanding how Australian ecosystems function and to protecting their cultural, economic and environmental values, especially as climate and fire regimes continue to change into the future.Read moreRead less